uh, ...what key are we in?: August 2009

Back in the late 80's and early 90's I played in a couple of hard rock bands. Their names were Allegiance (my first band ever), and Legacy. They were what you would call, "hair metal" bands. We were young Christian boys and wanted to rock out like any other young men our age. We chased the elusive record deal to make us full time music stars. Got a couple of nibbles, but to no avail. We were good bands, and I am proud to have been in them. Our hearts (intentions) were pure, and we wanted to be all that Christian musicians could be. But it all went down the drain like Brian Adam's song, "Summer Of 69." Sing it to yourself and you'll understand.

Anyway, we all kind of hung out at this Christian Record store called Heartsong Records. The guy who owned the place was also a concert promoter, and had his own Christian Rock radio show at the local Christian radio station. (He is still on the air now at: http://newark.promiseradionetwork.com/ The show is called Rock Solid, check it out) It was kind of this young adult Christian scene/subculture that was really unique.

So me and some of the guys that were in these hair bands with me were asked if wanted to play a Heartsong Records reunion party. I was still working two jobs at the time, so I was a little reluctant to do it because of the lack of rehearsal time available to make it a good concert. Since I don't know how to say no to anyone, I said yes anyway. We squeezed in about 3 rehearsals and I must say they went rather well. I said before that we were pretty good bands, and it seemed the old muscle memory from playing that style of music served us well. Things really snapped into place. Turns out I AM pretty good at that style of music! Huh, who knew??

The concert went really well and the party was a complete blast! We even made a fair amount of money.(which we used to pay the sound man, and the rest went to the guy who owned the record store) The crowd cheered as each song ended, and I seemed to have more fun with each number we belted out. It was such a great time to see all those people I hadn't seen in 20 years. Moments of the other night were like time had stood still and no time had passed since the last time we were all together. I posted some videos below that our drummer posted to his youtube page.

Have you ever had an experience like that? Where it seemed surreal and that you were indeed reliving a bit of your past? Learning that I still have the musical chops was the single best musical experience I have had in almost 15 years! It has been an effort to pry the smile from my face since the other night! I am really looking forward to seeing what is on the horizon for me and my musical partners in crime!